Pages

Thursday, August 27, 2009

what really happened to the arctic sea?

in recent weeks, i've found the story of the supposed pirate attack on the finnish-owned, maltese-flagged vessel arctic sea a compelling one. initially, it was interesting because it appeared to be a pirate attack in european waters and the first of its kind in decades.

as the story goes, the ship left finland july 23, loaded with timber. the next day, the ship reported that a group of men, presenting themselves as swedish police, boarded the ship in the baltic sea between finland and sweden. strangely, the only ones they notified of this were the russian embassy in finland, tho' at some point the swedish police were involved. apparently, some 12 hours later, the men left the vessel and it continued on its way. the next report of it was that it sailed through the busy english channel, still hijacked, tho' the story gets a bit hazy.

after that, they switched off their AIS system (an international electronic tracking system that all merchant ships have (go here to see ships live, right now, as we "speak")) and disappeared for more than two weeks, finally resurfacing 200 nautical miles from the cape verde islands off the coast of west africa. a bit far from her destination port in algeria. the russian navy rushed in, "rescued" the russian crew that was onboard and arrested 8 alleged hijackers, most of whom were from estonia, and spirited them off to moscow. word has it that the captain stayed onboard with russian navy personnel and that they are sailing the vessel and its cargo towards the black sea.

the russian navy's keen interest in the case, as well as grumblings from NATO sources, lead one to believe that there was more than a cargo of timber onboard. before loading the timber at the port in finland, the ship spent two weeks in kaliningrad, that important little baltic port that russia kept after the disintegration of the soviet union. i've read rumors of everything from drugs to guns to cruise missiles to nukes. but, i suppose, like with the kursk submarine case a number of years ago, we'll never really know the truth. but it does set the imagination on overdrive. i could definitely see constructing a james bond plotline out of this one.

* * *

took this screenshot of all of the ships in "my" area on that marine traffic website. each of those little colored ship-shaped bits is a ship and if you hover over it (on the site, not on my screenshot), you'll learn the name and how fast she's currently sailing. how cool is that? why didn't i know about this before? it's a very cool website, but i can see that there is no data available in the pirate-infested waters off east africa and through the malacca straits. very smart thinking, that. wouldn't want to assist the pirates. go and check it out, it's really quite fun to realize exactly how many ships are out there. be sure to check out the english channel, it's really crowded.

17 comments:

Terrific posting. The global shipping info is fantastic, what a busy place!

As the story about the Arctic Sea unfolds ... police searching for something and probably not finding "it", the ship going dark, the aggressiveness of the Russians ... you do have to wonder what was hidden within the ship.

That is SO COOL! I mean the map thingie, not the pirate thingie. I'm at work and played on it for a while. I really want to be on the Scottish Viking...or maybe the Excelsior or Seaborne Legend. It's kinda cool (nerdy?) to look at all these ships and think about who is on them, where they are going, what adventures they are having... all while I'm sitting here in the pharmacy a world away in a little mid-western town...*sigh*thanks for this post. Very cool.

It certainly is a mystery, no? I share you cynicism, knowing that much more must have been going on. Probably no accident they went towards pirated waters where they could not be traced by perhaps other means. The globe is warming up in more ways than one...

Wow! Interesting "story/news" and OMG so much traffic in the seas!Oh, and about the sea urchins! Have you tried them before? I can't stand the bottled type (fishy) but if you can go to a sushi restaurant that has the really fresh kind, you could be pleasantly surprised...if you like creamy and nutty flavors. ;-)But I must admit that even in Japan we often talk about how "courageous" the first person to ever crack open and eat a sea urchin must have been!Personally, eating sea cucumbers puts me off much much more...eewww...lol

I got all excited! I can see Ben's yacht, I thought. then I remembered... he's in those pirate infested waters off the West coast of Africa. damn.But I can see the logic in not making their position known.

I think theh watch to many pirates movies, specially the last trilogythat jonny deep made, but there was also involve new technologymodernity, with the new tracking systems in place, and maybe oldschool pirates are just not ready to handle that pretty well

Thank you for the marinetraffic.com info! Its so cool. My dad and I are sailors and like to look for our favorite boats in nyc waters since i was little. I found three that i recognized on the site and tracked them!